Members of Congress have come to expect controversy sometimes during their August break. Four years ago, it was health care. This year many thought it would be immigration. But in California, global warming has become an unexpectedly hot topic.

Well-meaning home gardeners who buy plants to attract pollinators might be harming honeybees, according to a study that an environmental group released Wednesday. The Pesticide Research Institute found that seven of 13 types of garden plants purchased at top retailers contained neurotoxic pesticides...

Researchers have unearthed another reason that bees might be getting sick, and they suspect it’s connected to common fungicides used on crops, such as blueberries and almonds, for which commercial honeybees are brought in as pollinators.

The federal government moved Wednesday to protect the ocean habitat of loggerhead turtles, listed since 1978 in some places as an endangered species because of threats from pollution, injury caused by fishing gear and loss of nesting beaches.

President Barack Obama’s plan to curb climate change could transform American energy, potentially dealing a blow to the coal-fired power plants that supply much of the nation’s electricity but also pump planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce a long-awaited federal strategy that not only is expected to rein in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions but also will address the sweeping effects of climate change already occurring.

In years past, tens of thousands of red knots crowded the sandy beaches of Mispillion Harbor in Delaware Bay, gorging on fresh horseshoe crab eggs spawned in such abundance they turned the shoreline a gelatinous green. Smaller than a gull but larger than a robin, the shorebirds have one of the longest...